Rabbits and Religion.

This weekend was one of pleasant surprises. Friday, just before twilight, families from the Congregation Shirat Hayam gathered at the park next to my son’s school. Part temple ritual, part picnic, the Kabbalat Shabbat resonates a calm certainty in the power of faith and family. From the park’s gazebo I could indulge in the cantor’s psalms and watch the silvery waves that stretch out between the sea wall and Nahant. Both echoed a promise and a prayer.
With so many churches focusing on bricks and mortar and the PA systems and decor that fill them, it was good to see people practicing their ideals with nothing more that a cloudy sky over-head and grass under their feet. It sort of reminds me of the Whos from Dr. Suess’s The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. They also needed nothing more than a hand to clasp to celebrate their community and their faith.
The rabbit staring out at you (click on the image to enlarge) was another pleasant surprise. We caught up with him(or her) Sunday outside of the Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge. The congestion of cars and people seem to bother me more than him. It made me reflect on the skills he had to learn to survive, like not getting run over and avoiding tickets for jay-walking. I guess rabbits and religions have something in common- both survive and thrive by focusing on the why and the how, not the where.